her frankness; that it was not by her
word that he would attempt to justify his. Indeed, she was convinced
that he would have called her Reenie anyway,--just as she had called
him Dave, without premeditation or intention. Then she remembered she
was in the ranch country, in the foothills, where the conventions--the
conventions she hated--had not yet become rooted, and where the souls
of men and women stood bare in the clear light of frank acceptance of
the fact. It would be idle--dangerous--to trifle with this boy by any
attempt at concealment or deception. And what were conventions but a
recognized formula of concealment and deception?

She could see his form now, as he led the horses toward the corral.
How straight he was, and how bravely his footsteps fell on the hard
earth! The poetry of his motion reached her through the darkness. She
heard the harness jingle as the horses rubbed between the posts of the
corral gate.

"He's a wonderful boy," said the doctor, of whose presence she had been
unconscious. "Cat's eyes. Full gallop through the dark; side hills,
mountain streams, up and down; break-neck. Well, here we are." The
doctor breathed deeply, as though this last fact were one to occasion
some wonderment. "Your brother tells me you have an injured man here;
accident; stranger, I believe? Well, shall we go in?"

Brother! But why should she explain? Dave hadn't bothered. Why
hadn't he? He had told about the stranger; why had he not told about
both strangers? Why had he ignored her altogether? This time came
another flush, born of that keen womanly intuition which understands.

With a commonplace she led the doctor into the house and to the bedside
of her father. She was struck by the change in attitude of the
visiting physician when he learned that his patient was of his own
profession. It was like the meeting of brothers in a secret order.
There was an exchange of technical terms that might have served as
password or sign into some fine fraternity, and the setting of the limb
was accompanied by a running fire of professional comment as effective
upon the nerves of the sufferer as an opiate.

When the operation was completed the girl turned her attention to the
kitchen, where she found Dave, sweating in vicarious suffering. He had
helped to draw the limb into place, and it had been his first close
contact with human pain. It was different from branding calves, and he
had slipped out of th